(first posted 3/17/2012) Once in a while it’s fun to peruse old photographs of parking lots just to get an idea of what the mix of cars really was like at any given time. Here’s a few from a gallery of vintage eateries from the site retronaut. Now this first one is what really caught my eye; not only are the Big Four all represented, but we have two foreigners, from very opposite ends of the economic spectrum.

This was from an era when most highway and suburban restaurants weren’t chains, but I seem to remember Country Kitchen from my Midwest years: biscuits and gravy anyone?

There aren’t exactly many cars here, but the one that’s visible is highly unusual. Never saw one on my travels in the US.

A matching brace of Oldsmobiles.

Didn’t we stay there once?

Another chain in its early years.

No cars here, but then it doesn’t exactly have a lot of curb appeal. This is one reason why chains took over so much of the business.

Others were a bit more creative.

Maybe a bit too much so. A French history buff owner?

Smorg-ette indeed!

The martini glass sign has to be represented here.

Let’s end with the classic American drive in. Got any road-food or restaurant tales, good or bad?

80 Comments

I was a kid during the heyday of these places. To me they all look incredibly inviting (except for Blanchard’s, which looks like an office facility on a military base). Lou Coomes Charcoal Galley seems seems like a place only adults would go.

On one of my childhood automobile trips, one of our stops was Champaign, Illinois, where my father had gone to the University of Illinois. All he could talk about on our way there was the “Steak n’ Shake” he remembered from the old days. No matter what, we were going to go there and have lunch. The “steak” turned out to be a just a regular hamburger on a bun.

We always ate at these places on our trips and stayed at the adjacent motels. Perfect places for me to look at bunches of cars up close while Mom and Dad carried the luggage upstairs.

There are tons of these in Illinois still, I’d live to find some pics from back in their heyday.

If you’re ever in McCook Illinois I highly recommend Snuffy’s Grill. It’s a little Truck Stop greasy spoon on Old Rt66. It dates back to the 1930s and hasn’t really been remodeled since the 50s.
The Steak and Cheese Omelet(that’s how it’s spelled on the menu..) is out of this world!

Lyons, Il is home to Darcy Lynn’s. Another greasy spoon/Malt Shop. It’s a total throwback joint with the cross break pattern stainless steel walls and boomerang pattern Formica lunch counter. It’s not modeled after a 50s Diner, it’s an actual well preserved 50s Diner.
I highly recommend the home made Biscuits with sausage gravy, Eggs, bacon and hash browns.

For some night life action Hickory Hills, Il has the Sabre Room. It’s been maintained as-is for 50 years and hosted greats such as Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.
You can’t go wrong with Prime Rib but the menu changes according to the scheduled events.

I used to cruise a Steak ‘n Shake in Springfield, MO with a friend in his 1965 Chevy Impala 2dr hardtop with a 283 and a 4-speed. This was in 1965. You could actually order an Impala with a 283 with the 4-speed that year. The car hops would bring us our Cokes and fries and we would watch the constant parade of shiny rides parade past us. Chrome-reversed rims were a big deal then. I remember some dude in a ’65 Ford LTD 390 (probably his mother’s car) silently spinning a right rear tire while stopped waiting for traffic to move ahead of him. The only way I could get rubber in my ’57 Chevy six powerslide was to accidentally knock the gearshift lever into reverse while exploring the very limited limits of its acceleration.

I learned an important life lesson from this, however. I got more ass than a toilet seat in my ’57 Chevy while my friend in his ’65 4-speed was probably a virgin until he was married.

As a kid in the early 70s we would travel I95 to Maine every summer. We would always stop at Yokuns (thar she blows!) in Portsmouth NH. Great big animated neon sign, good seafood/roadfood. But what I really remember is the huge stawberry shortcake… Perfect for a hungry and excited 11-year-old. Next stop, the LL Bean factory store…
Yokuns has only recently been demolished, and I gather that cuased some controversy.

In 1970 or ’71 my Dad had a summer teaching position at the University of NH. We were regulars at Yokuns during the month that he taught there. The food was good if I remember and the prices must have been reasonable. I don’t remember the shortcake, but we tended not to order dessert.

In a better day (night.) Follow the sign three blocks and you’ll find the condos that replaced the restaurant. (With no other view restaurants around, it was a real loss. The food was standard ’60s Surf n Turf, but well-prepared, if I recall.

Can’t make out the picture well for the Brahma, but is that a Mini Moke? There was one around Western Springs (west ‘burb of Chicago) in the 60, but I never knew what it was until I saw an article on it.

Blanchard’s looks pretty generic. I kept thinking of Blanchard grinders–could have been the office building for the factory. Sad.

On a ’70s road trip I encountered a tourist trap/steak joint in Amarillo TX. They had a huge steak that was “free” if you could eat it in an hour. After trying their normal sized steak, no thanks. The kid’s urinal in the loo was labeled “Texans”. Braggarts. 🙂

The best steak was in AZ in the mid-60s in a diner in town. Rt 66 split into two 1-way streets and this was in the middle. East of Flagstaff, but no idea of the town. We graced the parking lot with our 66 Breezeway Merc and a Reliart “Reliart is trailer spelled backwards” tent trailer.

I see now. !@#$% cataracts. The Moke was as exotic as Western Springs usually got–actually an MG Midget or a B was about as exotic as it usually got. We had a Fiat dealer in the area, but he sold more British iron then Italian.

That Lou Coomes place was here in Lansing, MI, where I live. The building is still there (last I checked) but I’m not sure what it is now. It’s not a restaurant.

I like the parking lot shots, but also like old TV shows/movies where the backgrounds are real streets. Half of everything on wheels used to come from GM. The D3 have given up so much market share it’s pathetic.

I love seeing these, as much for the cars that graced the parking lots, but the buildings themselves. Some of the buildings resemble what was known back in the day as Googie architecture. Essentially very modern buildings with exaggerated details, often depicting the future and the space race, glowing with neon, bright colors etc. Sadly, by 1965 environmentalism began to rise and people became disgusted with these “blights” to the landscape so by the late 60’s, more earthy colors, mansard roofs and other more traditional details became the norm. That shot of Blanchard’s looks like it may be closed, ie, shot when not yet open for the day due to the fact that the curtains look to be closed

The chain restaurant has been around since around 1876 when Fred Harvey, then working in the railroad but had previous restaurant experience saw how stopping for food was such an ordeal, some not able to be eaten and it turned out some of the workers on the railroad took in a percent of the cost of the meal, even if uneaten due to a lack of time or was poorly served decided to make things better, opening his first restaurant at a depot in Topeka Kansas, a year later, opened another restaurant with an attached hotel which he refurbished a year later, about a 100 miles south of Topeka in Florence KS. This began his chain of Harvey Houses.

Many companies, such as White Castle had their start in the 20’s but the vast majority of the family and fast food restaurant chains had their starts in the late 40’s, early 50’s, along with many of the hotels like Holiday Inn that sprang up along the major highways as Americans began traveling more and more.

I have 2 books, one out of print, but found a copy online, I think through Amazon or Ebay, I forget which and is a used library book in very good shape that talks about the history of the chain restaurants, including Denny’s, Howard Johnson’s, McDonalds, Carrol’s, Dairy Queen, Burger King, Vip’s, A&W and such, including the beginnings of the chain restaurant with Fred Harvey’s Harvey Houses on through post 1975 with the unsolved issues of the chain restaurants, ending with chapter called unsolved problem. The book is Orange Roofs, Golden Arches by Phillip Langdon.

The other covers the Googie coffee shop modern architecture itself, namely the coffee shop/restaurant and family restaurants like Denny’s and HoJo’s but of the more local coffee shops such as the old Ship’s coffee shopts in LA, or Norm’s or Pann’s – all in LA. the last I looked, this book is still in production and I bought my copy new several years ago, simply titled Googie, Fifties Coffee Shop Architecture by Alan Hess.

It’s the design ethos of the mid to late 50’s that I love with its space age/futuristic designs that predominate and that goes for the cars too, which is why I love it when a model kind of goes over the top, such as the 57 Plymouths and love all that riot of color that was popular then.

I’m a huge fan of that Space Age design from the 50s and 60s.
I used to service a couple of houses in the Chicago burbs from that time. Slate floors, narrow floor to ceiling windows, coy pond in the hall between the kitcken and great room and a continous stainless counter top in the kitchen with the range and sink “built in”. LOVE it!

The Fjords pic above really catches my attention. I like that pseudo A frame style.

Thanks for the additional comments and history. I’ve read about Harvey House too; it really was a pioneering concept.

I’m not so sure I agree with your comment about growing environmentalism being the cause for the move away from googie architecture. Popular architecture was always changing in America, just like car styling. The change that happened around 1965 or so in architecture and interior design is also reflected in the change in car design, and marks the end of the spacey/finny era, and the beginning of the Great Brougham Epoch, even in houses. Think dark paneling, shag carpeting, spit-level and two story houses, large and plusher furniture (away from sixties’ minimalism decor).

To a degree, you are right Paul, as I was saying, and going off what I remember in the book Orange Roof’s that I mentioned initially, it talked about this to a degree and part of it was the shifting mood, stemming from Vietnam, but most tastes like Googie architecture and Mid Century Modern had, by 1965 been around 10 years and that’s usually how long a style lasts and thus had run its course.

Also, we had the Mod period that spread from England to the US in the Mod Modern designs that still reflected a futuristic element, think the movie 2001’s set design. That would move into the early 70’s and would evolve through that decade, beginning in the early to mid 60’s for a few years.

There were other issues like the square box of the kitchen area of many of these restaurants that often got exposed when coming off of freeway interchanges and were NOT pretty to look at as most Denny’s were often located, that and by the mid 60’s, new ordinances kept a lot of these exuberant designs out of their communities so it forced chains to adopt to their localities. Denny’s, once they realized they had to move into the urban/suburban cores and so had to adapt to those areas so they’d blend in more so more subdued designs prevailed. Even McDonalds in some communities in California could not build their old style buildings with the golden arches coming out of the roofs so thus the Mansard style of McDonalds that has permeated the land since about 1969.

But it WAS local municipalities that forced much of this change to make their areas, especially the strip malls in commercial corridors more presentable and less an eyesore to the landscape they may find themselves in.

But yes, it was changing tastes in particular that was at the root of it.

We’re both right! Truth is, this is a pretty complex subject; all the different streams that converged to change popular culture and the built environment.

ciddyguy

Posted March 17, 2012 at 9:47 PM

Indeed, a very complex subject that’s for sure.

CarCounter

Posted March 18, 2012 at 2:12 AM

Thanks for the enlightening discussion. I’ve nothing to contribute to this subject, and I’ll try to find the books you mentioned.

ciddyguy

Posted March 18, 2012 at 7:04 AM

Your very welcome.

It’s a subject near and dear to my heart and it keeps coming up every now and then and been lately thinking perhaps it’s something to pursue as an avenue to more enlightening work as I get older.

I’m working on moving into new career path that hopefully pays more than a bare living wage and this might be one avenue.

Tom Klockau

Posted March 18, 2012 at 1:56 PM

I guess the Great Brougham Epoch extended to architecture. That French restaurant is a Brougham Building!

CA Guy

Posted March 18, 2012 at 2:19 PM

I share the love for Googie/Space Age/mid-century modern architecture. When I moved to LA in 1972 Googie continued to have a place in the city; Ship’s in Westwood was a frequent hangout during my graduate student years at UCLA. Tiki-style restaurants also were still around: Tiki torches, bridges across koi ponds, taped recordings of Pacific storms and chanting Polynesian gods – all enhanced by powerful rum drinks – what a great time.

As a kid my ultimate rocket age architectural experience was going to the World’s Fair in Seattle in 1962 and seeing the Space Needle and Monorail for the first time (after poring over pictures for weeks in advance). I remember being disappointed when I got back to the Needle 30 years later and found that its exuberant colors of the 1960’s – Orbital Orange and Re-entry Red – were long gone. I agree with Paul that as in the case with cars, styles changed. However, I’m happy to report that just as 1959 Cadillacs and Oldsmobile Rocket 88s continue to be collectible, interest in mid-century modern style is growing throughout southern California. The most recent restoration of the Theme Building at LAX is a good example.

Great article and great feedback. JPC, did you frequent Penguin Point diners/drive-ins in Indiana? I remember cruising them in high school in my Dad’s 1965 Thunderbird. Haven’t had a deep-fried pork tenderloin sandwich in decades…

Joe L

Posted March 18, 2012 at 5:31 PM

I, too, love Googie and Midcentury Modern architecture. I’d love nothing more than an Eichler home with a 1961 Cadillac two-door hardtop parked out front.

Check out the magazine Atomic Ranch – plenty of love for MCM in there.

The values of Eichler and Strang homes show how interest in this era is growing.

I have hundreds of old postcards stashed away and seemed to remember that some of them had cars in them. Here’s the best one, by far. I just scanned it and haven’t attached an image here before, so I hope it’s okay.

(Oh, well, I screwed that one up. Couldn’t find out how to delete the entire post, so I’ll try again).

As to the year of the Cadillac, I would guess between 1948 and 1950, because that is when they came out with those fins. People referred to them in those years as “trombone fins” because they resembled a trombone case. My father told me that long ago; he drove one of those models after he got out of the service. However, I see that the Sands Hotel did not open until 1952, so it is probably a 1952 or 1953 model.

Dick’s, first drive in opened in Wallingford in 1954, with 3 others opening later, the Broadway store where I live the following year, Lake City in 1960, Hillman Road and on Lower Queen Anne in Seattle, the last one built in 1974 and is the only sit down restaurant. They had one in Bellevue, like the others, you drove up, got out and made your order at the window and got back in the car to eat it but closed when the Queen Anne location opened.

Now they have a new location up north in Edmonds, right off of old Highway 99, how fitting.

The only thing I can add that was unique was in 1970, on my first trip to San Francisco with four of my friends, we ate lunch in the same Mel’s Diner used in the 1973 movie “American Graffiti” on Van Ness Avenue.

I still prefer the original walk-up-style McDonald’s and am very thankful the mansard-roof style has finally disappeared from McDonald’s styling, which characterized them when they converted to sit-down interior seating..

I was looking the other day at a 1966 photo of a large parking lot at the University of BC, and in amongst all the big Detroit cars there were lots of VW’s- over a quarter of the cars were VW Beetles or vans. And when I was there in the early 70’s, looking down from my 8th floor dorm room, the parking lot below was similarly occupied with about 25% Beetles… including mine and those of many of my friends. I guess students were early converts to small import cars.

There are still a few true A&Ws out there. I know of one near the Il/Mo border that’s pretty sweet. I’m praying someone in my family has pics of the A&W that was next door to where my dad grew up. If I can get pics it’ll make a great story. My mom was a car hop there and dad was the guy that grandma warned her about..

We still have A&W in BC, although I’m not sure if any are drive-ins anymore. The frosty mugs of root beer are still the best. You gotta eat in to get the frozen glass mug instead of a cardboard cup, and it always helps to specially request the mug. It really does make a difference!

There used to be an A&W restaurant not too far from my childhood home, built in probably the late 50’s or early 60’s and it was both a sit in and drive in place whereby you pulled up to a stall, grabbed the phone and called in your order (it was an intercom system). Each table had a similar unit – and yes, you could get the frosty glasses of root beer.

It was a favorite hangout for the HS kids after things like Young Life or a football or basketball game on Friday nights and I used to go there to socialize for a while before heading home.

Sadly, it closed in the mid 80’s and for a long time was a Homestead restaurant, though now it may be closed.

The former A&W in Moline is still standing, but it’s now a Subway. I remember my mom taking me there when I was really little. After the A&Ws went away in the mid ’80s, the Davenport location became Dean’s and they kept the decor and menu-even the tabletop jukeboxes. They had the best Coney dogs! Unfortunately they closed in the early ’90s and it was torn down to make room for a Family Video. Today there are Long John Silver’s/A&W hybrids in Moline and Davenport. They added A&W items to the menu about five years ago.

Is that an Isetta peering out from between the land yachts in the first picture?

Back when that picture was taken, it would be hard to believe that BMW would one day be considered a step up from Cadillac and Lincoln by most people.

One thing that’s interesting about these pictures is how most of the cars look so ordinary. These days a lot of 50 year old cars that have survived are special in some way. A 409 powered Impala SS convertible probably had a better chance of surviving all these years than a basic 283 powered four door sedan…

There used to be a great drive-in, Deb’s, in Milan IL. I remember they had Green River soda and had cruise nights in the summer. It was really neat, so of course it was torn down in the late ’80s or early ’90s for a bank branch. That teed off a lot of locals!

One of my favorite current places is Porkies in Silvis IL. They used to have several locations in the Quad Cities but are now down to just their original location. While it is fast food, they cook everything to order so its always fresh. Their “Big Daddy” breaded tenderloin is the best!

The Northeast, being older and more built-up, managed to escape the more garish examples of this particular chapter in our nation’s architectural history, even if the strip arterials had their share, lost in a sea of signage and cardboard commerce.

Somehow, I must have been infected by the genre, however.

In the 1970s I developed a proposal and presented it to the legislature, for a commuter-assist transportation strategy. Ordinary commuters, passing muster, would be certified by the state to pick up riders at strategically located shelters and carry them on to work. The idea was to cut down on commuter traffic (by FAR the largest transportation use in this country) and save on gas. Unfortunately, I chose to call this proposal the Car Hopper System.

Fascinating!!! I had to bookmark that site so I can check it out more later.

This got me to thinking, there is a group of guys from New York that started a website called deadmalls.com, and part of their adventures includes searching out Howard Johnsons around the country and they travel to them and have a meal there and take pictures of them. They even wear their official Howard Johnsons t shirts when they go!

On a different note, and Paul I hope you don’t mind my doing this here, I have been away for a few days because I had to travel back to Ypsilanti for a doctors appointment. I didn’t get a good report, I have a bad blood disease. They claim that if I respond to the medicine that I have to start tomorrow that I should be okay, but life still will be tough for me. So having shared this with you all, I still intend to contribute and chime in when I can. For those of you that might be so inclined, prayers would be appreciated…

Drive in memories: Daly on Telegraph in Dearborn featured foot long hot dogs. The pic is the Daly in Livonia as no-one has posted a pic of the Dearborn location. Gone now.

Blazo’s Country Fair on Michigan in Dearborn. Originally built as a Big Boy, was rebranded as Blazo’s in the mid 60s. Ate a lot of fried chicken in a basket there. They featured a huge ice cream sundae call the ferris wheel. Gone without a trace.

Schwarz’s drive-in on S Westnedge in Kalamazoo. Was out with some friends one night and the two guys in the back seat saw a car with two girls alone in it, so we pulled in to the spot next to them. Dick started up a conversation with the girls and shortly he and the other guy in the back moved over into their car. Carl and I finished our supper, but Dick had no intention of abandoning what he had going. I suggested to Carl, “let’s leave them”. Carl told Dick we were leaving, Dick waved bye as Carl wound up his 62 Thunderbird and we headed back to my place. On a hunch, we hung around my place for a while…and in about 10 minutes the phone rang. It was Dick…the girl’s boyfriends had arrived and booted him and the other guy out of the car. So Carl and I had a good laff as we drove back to Schwarz’s and picked up those two forlorn looking guys sitting on the curb.

Looks like my dad’s 1964 Sport Fury outside the Steak & Shake__had that been the Howard Johnson’s alongside I-94 between Detroit and Elkhart, Indiana, I would swear it was his! I have a picture he took of me leaning on the front bumper from about that same angle.

That Chestnut/Sandalwood Sport Fury would later turn out to be my first car, but not until it had 106,000 miles on it, and had been run into a few times (always repaired, even if they seriously dropped the ball on matching the paint on the LH door…).

In Kirkland Washington, where I grew up, there’s a Burgermaster drive-in restaurant that’s been around since the early 60s. When I got my driver’s license, I would drive to Burgermaster and have my favourite milkshake, a peanut butter milkshake.

When I was in grade school and middle school, I didn’t think eating out got any better than Howard Johnson’s! I think they’ve all been shuttered, which is too bad. I’d like to go to one now, for old times’ sake and to see what my more sophisticated adult taste buds made of them.

Only two from that era stick in my mind. First, Howard Johnson’s or HoJo’s seen back east and on our move from Baltimore to Los Angeles in 1966. The second upon arriving in Los Angeles and that was Bob’s Big Boy.

Just some observations: Photo #4: Skyland Restaurant has a nice sign out front, but building appears totally abandoned! No exterior relief whatsoever, like a govt. office. Simpler times, I guess?

In Stephen King’s novel 11-22-63(Hulufied as ‘11.22.63’), our time traveler uses the term ‘motel’ in 1958 while querying suitable lodging. The ensuing conversation at the garage suggests that they are still referred to in that era as ‘motor courts’, although ‘motel’ has seen some usage before World War 2. Was King’s book just trying to emphasize the feeling of anachronistic vocabulary?

The time was the mid 50’s. The place was Culver City, CA. Not my pics, but this location is one of my earliest memories, possibly around 1954 or so. Happened to break off the key to my dad’s ’48 Dodge in the door lock cylinder (How could a 4-year old do that?)

Anyway, Airport Village was sort of a drive-in food court, with hamburgers (‘Hamburger Handout, pictured), pizza, shakes, malts and ice cream, and even a steak place that eventually became ‘The Sizzler’. All gone now, bulldozed many, many years ago…..

When I was in high school in the 80’s my family used to sometimes go to the Steak N Shake in Orlando where classic cars met every Saturday night. The parking lot was filled with cars and people all night.

I remember as a small child in the early ’60’s seeing a fighter jet (F86?) mounted nose down on the roof of a building, possibly a restaurant. The plane was lit up at night, especially the inside of the cockpit. Something like this, but this is a gas station with a WW2 fighter. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/145

Can’t find any pictures on the internet. I always looked forward to driving by this building/jet when the family was traveling from S0Cal to Oregon and back.